Human Stem Cell Research with Pigs

Scientists working on growing organs within farm animals, but are afraid they might accidentally create human brain cells in pigs, thus changing their "cognitive state." The National Institutes of Health is blocking their funding in the meantime, but they're looking for alternate funding sources anyway.

Via Fox News:

A handful of scientists may be blurring the line between human and animal as they work toward creating embryos that are a combination of both, NPR reports.
Their goal is to grow human organs in farm animals for transplant into terminally ill patients—but the work is "ethically charged," the MIT Technology Reviewpoints out, and the National Institutes of Health has blocked funding while it considers the implications.
Meanwhile, scientists are pushing ahead with alternative funding. The work itself involves deleting a gene needed to grow a particular organ in, say, a pig embryo.
Human stem cells are then inserted in hope that a human organ, such as a pancreas, will develop instead when the embryo is placed inside a pig's womb.
Researchers are proceeding cautiously, removing the so-called "chimera embryos" for dissection after a few weeks gestation, but concerns remain. One is that the human stem cells (which can become any type of tissue) could create human brain cells in the pigs and change their "cognitive state," per theTechnology Review.

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